2022-2023 Wood Design & Building Awards
Image: Robotically Fabricated Structure (RFS), Ann Arbor, Michigan, ADR Laboratoire, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
DESIGN
Wood Design & Building Awards
The Canadian Wood Council has announced the winning projects of the 39th annual Wood Design & Building Awards program which recognizes the outstanding work of architectural professionals around the world who achieve excellence in wood design and construction. 181 nominations from 25 countries were received this year, with 24 winning projects selected. "The jurors agreed that the winning projects demonstrate skilled applications of wood – from the warm, acoustic enhancement of a concert hall to the transformative adaptive re-use of an old industrial building into a beautiful multi-function space. All the structures were incredibly rich and well crafted," said Stephane Langevin of STGM, one of this year’s jurors.
About the Wood Design & Building Awards
Prix Roger Pic 2023
Image: Faith - Mário Macilau - (2022) - Movart Gallery
PHOTOGRAPHY
Mário Macilau
Prix Roger Pic
The Prix Roger Pic 2023 was awarded to Mozambican photographer Mário Macilau for his work titled Faith. A multidisciplinary artist, he began photography in 2003, a discipline that remains major in his practice. Identity, political and environmental issues are always at the heart of his work, which goes hand in hand with the social and educational actions that the photographer carries out in his hometown with vulnerable populations, such as children. A long-term series, Faithdocuments the place of animism within religious practices in Mozambique, exploring themes of traditional medicine, rites of passage, etc.
2023 Guggenheim Fellowships
Image: "Kapwani Kiwanga: Off-Grid," 2022. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Dario Lasagni. Courtesy New Museum
ART
Guggenheim Fellowships
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the 171 scholars and artists who were awarded its acclaimed 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships. Among the winners in the fine arts category are Pamela Council, Jamal Cyrus, Kapwani Kiwanga, Diane Severin Nguyen, Tammy Nguyen, Samantha Nye, Evita Tezeno and Lavar Munroe. Kapwani Kiwanga is among the most closely watched artists working today, having won numerous esteemed artist prizes over the past years; next year, she will represent Canada at the Venice Biennale. In 2021, Pamela Council presented a memorable public sculpture in Times Square; titled A Fountain for Survivors.
About the Guggenheim Fellowships
Met Contemporary Commissions
Image: Nairy Baghramian "Breath Holding Spell" at secession, Vienna. Courtesy: the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris/London; kurimanzutto, Mexico City/New York
ART
Nairy Baghramian
Jacolby Satterwhite
Met Contemporary Commissions
The Metropolitan Museum of Art awarded Prestigious Commissions to Nairy Baghramian and Jacolby Satterwhite. Berlin-based sculptor Nairy Baghramian will make four sculptures for the façade niches facing Fifth Avenue, while Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Jacolby Satterwhite will fill the Great Hall with more than one hundred works that shift between sound, video and performance. For her commission, titled Scratching the Back, Baghramian has planned abstract, polychrome sculptures that "seem to have washed up like flotsam and jetsam," the Met said in a statement. Meanwhile, Satterwhite, the second contemporary artist officially commissioned for the Great Hall, debuted two monumental paintings that recast classic interpretations of American history with Indigenous, gender-fluid characters.
About the Met Contemporary Commissions
KAMS Promotion Abroad
Image: Hong Seung-Hye, When Flowering (2023). Birch plywood, acrylic latex paint. 60 x 80 x 81.5 cm, 160 x 5 x 1.5 cm (1 bar). Courtesy the artist and Kukje Gallery. Photo: Chunho An.
ART
KAMS Promotion Abroad
Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) has announced a raft of new support for Korean visual artists chosen for their potential to make it on the global stage. Selected artists will receive exposure through articles, videos, a book and studio visits from international art professionals. Among the 13 artists selected, Hong Seung-Hye, uses software to create her brightly coloured pictograms and geometric sculptures. Keem Jiyoung's "Glowing Hour" series of paintings, extreme closeups of candle flames as a metaphor for life, was presented at Art Basel Miami Beach last year. Raejung Sim draws compulsively to combat loneliness and anxiety, creating animations from acrylic and ink on paper.
About the KAMS Promotion Abroad
2023 Leica Women Foto Project Award
Image: Wilkay, Eli Farinango - Canada.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Anna Filipova
Eli Farinango
Greta Rico
Mary F Calvert
Leica Women Foto Project Award
This year recipients of the Leica Women Foto Project Award are Anna Filipova (UK), Eli Farinango (Canada), Greta Rico (Mexico) and Mary F Calvert (US). Anna Filipova chose to explore unique environmental and scientific topics in remote and inaccessible areas. Born in the indigenous Kichwa territory in Ecuador and raised in Canada, Farinango's documentary work focuses on cultural identity, indigenous healing practices and the connection between body and territory. Greta Rico’s project, Substitute Mother, tells the story of her cousin Siomara, who became a "Substitute Mother" to her 3-year-old niece following her mother’s murder. Mary F Calvert's series, Left Behind, depicts the impact of military sexual abuse (MST) on victims and their families, as well as the scars of trauma that are left long after events of sexual assault.
About the Leica Women Foto Project Award
Foam Paul Huf Award 2023
Image: Dialect, 2020 © Felipe Romero Beltrán
Felipe Romero Beltrán
Foam Paul Huf Award
Felipe Romero Beltrán is the winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award 2023. Based in Madrid, the Colombian photographer works on long-term projects, accompanied by in-depth research, which often stem from political tensions on borders and refer to the individual living body. Focused on social issues, his work deals with the tension that new narratives introduce into the field of documentary photography. At the same time, he is currently preparing a PhD dissertation on documentary photography at Complutense University of Madrid.
